Rubber draft gear assembly



April 5, 1955 H. E. TUCKER RUBBER DRAFT GEAR ASSEMBLY 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 21, 1952 INVENTOR. W 6 740m WWW w April 5, 1955 H. E. TUCKER RUBBER DRAFT GEAR ASSEMBLY JNVENTOR. Mi yiw/ap 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 BY %14 @0M19MM/Im Filed Feb. 21, 1952 April 5, 1955 H. E. TUCKER RUBBER DRAFT GEAR ASSEMBLY s Shee ts-Sheet 3 Filed Feb. 21, 1952 IN V EN TOR.

United States Patent Ofiice 2,705,569 Patented Apr. 5, 1955 RUBBER DRAFT GEAR ASSEMBLY Herbert E. Tucker, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Cardwell Westinghouse Company, a corporation of Delaware Application February 21, 1952, Serial No. 272,817

6 Claims. (Cl. 213-45) This invention relates to draft gears for railway cars, and has for its principal object to provide an assembly that may be received in the standard draft gear pocket and can be compressed readily for removal.

Generally speaking, this is accomplished in this illustrative embodiment by fastening the cushioning unit and spaced housings together with bolts and providing lateral access to the bolt ends for wedges or spacers to hold the gear compressed enough for removal when the supporting carrier irons have been taken olf.

In the drawings illustrating the preferred embodiment of the invention:

Fig. 1 is a horizontal section along the center line of the center sills of a car;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section along the center line of a car;

Fig. 3 is a horizontal section through the draft gear generally on the line 3--3 of Fig. 2 but staggered to align with the center of one of the fastening bolts and to pass at one side of the other fastening bolt;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a cross section on the line 5--5 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 6 is a perspective view of the two housings and fastening bolts; and

Fig. 7 is a side view of one of the resilient elements.

But these drawings and the corresponding description are used for the purpose of disclosure only.

The center sills 10 of familiar construction with familiar arrangement provide a standard draft gear pocket 11 under which is a carrier iron 12 riveted to the center sills at 13 to support a draft gear in the pocket 11.

The draft gear and two followers 14 and 15 are surrounded by a vertical yoke 16 connected by a key 17 to the shank 18 of a coupler having a striking horn 19 adapted to contact a striking plate 20 secured to the end of the center sills.

The draft gear shown in detail in Figs. 3-7 includes a resilient unit, generally indicated by 21, fastened between spaced housings 22 by bolts 23 passing through it and the housings.

The cushioning unit is made up of resilient elements or spring elements generally indicated by 24 alternating with spacers 25.

As shown in Fig. 4, each element includes a plate 26 of relatively incompressible material (preferably steel V S. A. E. 1010 is satisfactory) provided with rows of aligned openings 27, rubber bars or mats 28 overlying the rows of openings on each side of the plate and connected by plugs 29. The bars and plugs are of material such as rubber composition of suitable durometer hardness, for example 58 to 62.

In this embodiment, there are eight rubber bars, the second and the seventh being severed in their medial portions, as indicated in Fig. 7, to clear the bolts 23.

In making up the cushioning unit in this embodiment, six resilient elements or spring elements are arranged in series alternating with five incompressible spacers corresponding in size to the plates 26. The plates 25 and 26 have aligned openings 31 to receive the bolts 23;

Each housing 22 has a body portion provided with a flat face 32 (Fig. 6) for contact with the adjacent resilient element and on the opposite side has four horizontal flanges 33 connected at their ends by vertical flanges 34. The body portions are provided with openings 35 to receive the bolts 23.

The horizontal flanges are provided with somewhat semicircular openings 36 aligned with the ends of the bolts 23.

The draft gear composed as shown in Figs. 3 and 4 is assembled for handling, storage or shipment with lead washers 37 under the nuts 38, which washers yield after two or three operations of the draft gear and provide for ample expansion and contraction in use.

The draft gear is assembled in the car by raising it into the draft gear pocket 21 from below and making the carrier iron fast by rivets or bolts 13.

When the draft gear is to be removed, there is a problem of getting it compressed enough to permit lowering it from the draft gear pocket. According to this invention, a jack 40 (Fig. 2) is inserted between the coupler horn 19 and the striking plate 20 and operated to make the necessary compression, after which U-shaped wedges or spacers are inserted through the openings 36 between the nuts 38 and the back of the body portion of one of the housings 22. Then the jack is released.

By this means, the gear is held compressed and can be readily lowered when the carrier irons have been taken 01f.

In the appended claims it should be understood that reference to a bolt head is intended to mean either an integral head or a nut applied to the bolt.

I claim:

1. In a draft gear for railway cars, a cushioning unit having longitudinal bolt openings, a housing at each end of the cushioning unit having bolt openings in register with said bolt openings in the cushioning unit, bolts in said openings fastening the cushioning unit and housings together, at least one of said housings having portions extending beyond one of the bolt ends, said portions having a lateral passageway provided therein in registry with said one bolt end and the head provided thereon, thereby providing access to said bolt head from a position substantially normal to the axis of the bolt, whereby when the gear is compressed a spacer may be placed between said bolt head and the juxtapositioned portion of said one housing to temporarily shorten the gear for insertion into and removal from the draft gear pocket of a railway vehicle.

2. A draft gear adapted to be readily mounted within and removed from the draft gear pocket of a vehicle, said gear comprising a pair of opposed. housings each having a vertical wall providing an inner bearing face, resilient means positioned between said vertical walls, at least one of the housings being of box form with flanges extending outwardly from said vertical wall, a tension bolt anchored to the other housing and extending through an opening in said one housing with a head for the bolt bearing on the outer face of the vertical wall associated with said one housing, said one housing having a lateral passageway communicating with said bolt head, thereby providing access to said one bolt head from a position substantially normal to the axis of the bolt, whereby when the gear is compressed a spacer may be placed between said bolt head and the juxtapositioned vertical wall to shorten the gear and permit its removal from the draft gear pocket.

3. A draft gear as set forth in claim 2 in which said flanges are horizontal and in which said passageway extends through said flanges and is in registry with said bolt head.

4. A draft gear as set forth in claim 34 in which said one housing has integral top, bottom and side walls and in which said flanges are integral with said top, bottom and side walls and serve as intermediate strengthening ribs.

5. A draft gear adapted to be readily mounted within and removed from the draft gear pocket of a vehicle, said gear comprising a pair of opposed housings each having a vertical wall providing an inner bearing face with flanges extending outwardly from said wall adapted to engage a follower block or the like, resilient means positioned between the bearing faces of said vertical walls, a tension bolt passing through aligned openings in said vertical walls and having heads bearing on the outer faces of said walls, at least one of said housings having a lateral passageway communicating with one of the bolt heads, thereby providing access to said one bolt head from a position substantially normal to the axis of the bolt, whereby when the gear is compressed aspacer 7 may be placed between said one bolt head and the juxtapositioned vertical wall to shorten the gear and permit its removal from the draft gear pocket.

6. A draft gear as set forth in claim 5 in which said gear is adapted to be enveloped by a vertical yoke and a second tension bolt passes through aligned openings in said vertical walls with the second tension bolt being horizontally spaced from the first-mentioned bolt by a distance at least substantially equal to the width of said 'yoke.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS OConnor Feb. 28, Tucker July 5,

Apr. 28, Spence et al. Apr. 20, Heitner Feb. 14, Clark Apr. 16, Freeman Apr. 4, Spence et al. Oct. 31, 

